So, I feel that Peter Reinhart has the final word on bread recipes. I fell in love with baking when Orion handed me down a copy of the Tassajara Bread Book. Then one year Nevada gave me Crust & Crumb (Reinhart). The recipe I have made and experimented with the most is his Pizza Dough I. This is possibly the best pizza dough that I and many others profess they’ve ever tasted. This pie is so flavorful and has such a beautiful crumb. Some (Orion and Christopher), recently pressed me for information on this recipe and I swear my success comes from the ceramic stone. O’s using a granite tile and I believe Christopher is also, although I may be mistaken and he might be using an unglazed tile (I dunno). Regardless, here’s how Peter and I do it.

The dough. It’s been retarding in the fridge for a few days which really develops the flavors. Likewise, it is made from a starter that had been aging for a day. I like the gallon zipbags as the dough does not dry and you can burp the gas easily enough.

This dough is very wet and sticky. The recipe makes enough for about 3 pies. I remove a third and roll it in a pile of flour and let it rest for a while (20′ to an hour).

Rested and ready.

Then, I stretch it out by hand and, for lack of technical term, flap it out as you would sand out of your towel at the beach. It is then placed on parchment paper and drizzled with olive oil.

Next, the sauce, herbs, toppings, and cheese go on.

I preheat the oven to 550° (its max). I plan on doing a cleaning cycle (800°!) for the preheat, but I am a lil’bit scared to try this. I cook on a generic 1/4” stone. The remnants of past stones, a jelly roll pan, and a mini cast iron pan line the oven floor as well. I have cracked a few stones with wet dough recipes.

The result, yummy pie. I love this recipe. I also have Reinhart’s American Pie, but still default to the recipe from Crust &Crumb.